Karaoke-

"I can't believe you talked me into this," Roxas grumbled under his breath, stuffing his hands into his pockets as his brother smiled cheekily and dragged him through the glass door emblazed with a poster reading, "Karaoke Contest" in bright yellow letters.

"Come on Roxas! This'll be fun!" Sora told his brother excitedly.

"If you say so," Roxas muttered.

"Over here!" A melodious voice called, Sora's eyes landing on Kairi waving her hand above her head from across the room. He waved back in greeting and dragged a sullen Roxas along behind him.

"Hey Kairi!" Sora greeted his girlfriend with a smile, walking up and planting a chaste kiss on her cheek.

Roxas rolled his eyes at their behavior, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

"How's it going Roxas?" Riku asked offering forth his fist. Roxas replied in kind, shrugging his shoulders. "Could be better, could be worse. Just don't come crying to me when your team loses!" Roxas teased good-naturedly.

"Oh we are so gonna win now!" Xion spoke up, meeting Roxas's challenge head-on.

"This is gonna be your best chance to beat 'Team Sora'! Don't waste it!" Roxas taunted in a sing songy voice.

"Hi Roxas. I didn't know you would be here,"

The female voice startled the blonde, his body turning on a dime only to blink widely at the crystal blue eyes staring back at him.

Roxas tried to find his voice, clearing his throat as it came out as a squeak at first. "I - I didn't know I was gonna be here myself til fifteen minutes ago" Roxas stated, emphasizing his words in the direction of his brunette sibling.

"You know you wouldn't have come if I had given you more notice! Besides you would only sit at home playing video games anyway!" Sora called back across the room.

"That's true," Roxas shrugged in resignation.

"Well, since you'll be staying, you can come sit with me!" Namine said sweetly, grabbing his calloused hand in her smaller, warmer one.

Roxas and Namine talked and laughed through Sora's off-key rendition of "Living on a Prayer", Riku's surprisingly passionate "Never Stop,", as well as Kairi's quieter version of "That's the way I loved you". Xion had just finished her song, when Kairi's voice broke through the current storytelling moment.

"Your turn Roxas!" Kairi exclaimed excitedly as she pointed towards the stage urgently.

"What? No, no, no! I didn't agree to that!" he protested, crossing his arms indignantly and sinking further into his seat.

"Oh come on Roxas! It's a lot of fun!" Sora said, jabbing his brother in the side playfully.

"Says the guys who's tone deaf," the blonde muttered.

"Looks like you guys have already lost if Roxas won't even sing!" Xion chided playfully, receiving a high five from Axel and Riku.

"See! Even our enemies think our team can't win without you!" Sora whined.

"They're not our enemies Sora. It's karaoke for Pete's sake!" Roxas tried to reason.

"Don't kid yourselves! This is WAR!" Axel yelled across from their table.

Roxas groaned deeply, his competitive nature starting to win out against his more logical side.

"If you don't like to sing then you don't have to Roxas," Namine's sweet voice broke through his warring thoughts. "Not everyone is comfortable with it,"

"Are you kidding?! He's more comfortable on the stage than he is anywhere else!" Sora said, causing Roxas's glare to deepen. "He was singing before he could even talk!"

"Now that's not true," Roxas interjected, but Sora paid him no mind.

"Are you just… not very good?" Namine asked curiously.

"Pfft! He's the best there mmmph!"

"Do you really want to hear me sing?" Roxas asked the blonde girl, covering his brother's mouth before he had a chance to interject.

Namine simply nodded, giving Roxas the final push he needed to stand from his seat and hop his way up to the stage before Sora hand a chance to lick his brother's hand.

"Do something nineties!" Sora called from the audience, causing his brother to roll his eyes and smirk. What was his obsession with that decade?

Roxas searched through the available tracks, looking for something worth singing when a specific title caught his eye.

Smiling, he selected his choice and waited as the tune began to play over the speakers, the lights around his dimming from yellow to reds and blues.

He watched as the words appeared on the screen, but he didn't pay attention to them, knowing them by heart, instead choosing to focus on Namine's pretty face in the crowd. He took a deep, steadying breath and began with the first note.

[Listen to, "Kiss From a Rose" by Jesse McCartney for the full effect.]

——-

To say that Namine was enraptured would be an understatement. When Sora had said that he was the best, she had assumed he was simply being nice about his brother, after all, Sora himself couldn't carry a tune in a bucket so Roxas shouldn't be much better. She was very quickly proved wrong.

Roxas could not only sing, but he sang as if he had been doing nothing else his entire life. His voice smooth and rich like butter and every note hit with an effortless perfection. If her dreams had a soundtrack, it would be sung by Roxas.

She was so drawn in by his performance that she didn't even realize that he had finished the song and was sitting back across from her at the table.

"How'd I do?" He asked sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck in the cute little nervous way that she found so endearing.

"You crushed it bro! No one could even come close!" Sora praised, offering him a fist which Roxas smiled at and bumped with his own fist.

"We're ruined!" Xion exclaimed dramatically, her head falling to the table. Riku patted his girlfriend's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

"I knew we shouldn't have taunted him," Axel muttered, sinking into his seat while crossing his arms and pouting like a little kid.

"You were incredible. I never knew you had such a powerful singing voice," Namine admited blushing slightly at how blatant she was being with her praise.

"I hope I didn't bore you at all," Roxas confessed abashedly.

"Oh I don't think I could ever tire of hearing your voice," she admitted, her cheeks darkening further.

Roxas smiled wider at her confession. Even if they didn't win the 50 prize tonight, Namine's smile was victory enough for him.

Man! This is my favorite chapter so far! Really happy with this one! If you can't tell, I was inspired by the turtle's performance from the masked singer for this one (who may or may not be Jesse McCartney. Who knows! ;). )